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Editor's Note:The following is the first in the
series "My Biggest Mistake" in which entrepreneur and
marketing expert Mike Templeman chats with fellow founders about
their missteps, the lessons they learned and advice they can
offer to others.

After deciding to ditch his dream of working on Wall Street, Zach
Mangum, along with Chris Wright and Kevin Kirkland, decided to
launch GroSocial, a
social-media marketing software company located in Utah. Like
other entrepreneurs, the trio had their fair share of growing
pains and missteps along the way. However, in spite of
their mistakes -- or
rather, due to the lessons learned from their mistakes -- the
team was able to attract the attention of InfusionSoft, a sales and
marketing software company. In 2012, GroSocial was purchased by
InfusionSoft for an undisclosed amount of money. This goes
to show, that despite making mistakes, many entrepreneurs can use
the lessons they learned and reach higher levels of success – as
long as they continue to persevere.

We caught up with Mangum to chat about what mishaps GroSocial
had, what he learned and takeaways for fellow entrepreneurs.

His biggest mistake. Mangum explains that
when they were first starting off, he had such a laser focus on
succeeding that he allowed business to become his sole
focus. He would work long hours, then take work home with
him.

“If I wasn’t thinking about work, I felt guilty,” he says.

This unceasing drive coupled with the fact he didn't want to be a
failure to his family led him to be consumed by work in a quest
to achieve success. He noticed he was becoming someone that
“people didn’t want to be around, at times.” He would make
comments to co-founders and employees that he would regret and
pushed people far too hard. He was becoming abrasive. He
saw his actions eroding the culture that he so desperately wanted
to nurture.

Mangum knew he couldn't continue down this path, otherwise, he
would implode. So he began setting a schedule that required him
go home at a reasonable hour. He started telling himself
and his employees to create reasons to want to be at home.
If work was all they were working for, then they were
failing. The shift worked. His relationships were
spared, and he learned a valuable lesson.

What he learned. “Chill out. Stuff can
wait. You need to work for something other than work," he
says. "No one wants to be around a guy whose sole purpose is
work. It makes you a boring person to be around and a
difficult individual to associate with.”

Advice to other entrepreneurs. “Wanting to
become an entrepreneur can feel like standing on the precipice of
a cliff. You’re looking down and you see all the things
that can go wrong if you start a business. It’s scary and
daunting. But I would tell anyone standing there to jump,
he says. "Nothing is going to happen if you just stand
there. But if you jump you might get hurt, but you also
might fly. Regardless of what happens, you’ll be better for
it. Just do it.”